The 1948 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XIV Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event which was held in London, England, United Kingdom. After a 12-year hiatus because of World War II, these were the first Summer Olympics since the 1936 Games in Berlin. The 1940 Games had been scheduled for Tokyo, and then Helsinki; the 1944 Games had been provisionally planned for London. This was the second occasion that London had hosted the Olympic Games; the city had previously been the venue in 1908. The Olympics again returned to London in 2012, making it the only city to host the games three times.

The event came to be known as the Austerity Games because of the economic climate and post-war rationing. No new venues were built for the games, and athletes were housed in existing accommodation instead of an Olympic Village. A record 59 nations were represented by 4,104 athletes, 3,714 men and 390 women, in 19 sport disciplines. Because of their roles as aggressors in World War II, Germany and Japan were not invited to participate; the USSR were invited but chose not to send any athletes. The United States team won the most total medals, 84, and the most gold medals, 38. The host nation won 23 medals, three of them gold.

Format of Competition

Two group exercises for which the team score counted, along with individual compulsory and optional exercises on parallel bars, horse vault and balance beam. In the individual exercises, each team put up all eight of their gymnasts per event, where only the best six scores counted towards the team score.